Is Your Business Taking Advantage of Facebook Marketing?

Some people think of Facebook as a place to post pictures, keep tabs on your friends, or reconnect with old friends and family. At Ferocious Media, we think of Facebook as a key marketing tool for businesses. We understand the steps that go into successful Facebook marketing, and run detailed social media campaigns for various businesses in all types of markets, including a full Facebook campaign, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Flickr, Constant Contact, etc.

Jason Fell, author of the popular article Facebook’s Marketing Tools You Might Not Know About, chatted with Sarah Smith, Facebook’s director of online operations, about how marketers can make the most of Facebook for businesses.

Below is an edited version of Fell’s exchange with Smith.

Entrepreneur: What’s most important when using Facebook for business?
Smith: Be real. People want to hear from the authentic you and have fun interacting with your business. Your customers are already on Facebook, checking out photos of their friends and videos of their niece’s first steps. They’re also eager to hear the story of what’s really happening in your business.

Entrepreneur: For business owners, what’s the most important metric to measure?
Smith: All businesses should be paying attention to the number of “People Talking About This” and friends of fans reached in their Page Insights page in your Admin Panel. Understand what types of posts are resonating with your fans and how you’re getting your messages to go viral. Ideally, you should have some sort of promotion that gets customers telling you that they heard about you on Facebook, so you can start to link your sales with your Facebook activity.

Entrepreneur: What Facebook tools are underutilized by small-business owners?
Smith: Page Insights is one, which offers free market research for your business. Use it to find out who your customers are, what type of posts are getting the best response from fans and how your advertising is driving new fans, new shares or new app installs.

Entrepreneur: What does an entrepreneur need to know to get the most out of Facebook advertising?
Smith: Play around with Facebook targeting. People put their likes and interests on their Timelines, so advertising can granularly target people who would be more interested in hearing from your business. If you’re running a health-food store, for instance, target people in your area who have “Vegetarian” in their profiles or health-related interests.

You can find broad categories such as expectant parents, moms, iPhone users, golf enthusiasts and even other small-business owners. Broad category targeting can help you find exactly who you want more quickly.

There’s also the new Promoted Posts. From your Page, you can turn those “must see” posts — say, for example, a celebrity comes into your restaurant — into ads to reach more of your fans. When you see in Page Insights that a post is getting really good response from fans, you can promote those posts quickly and easily.

Is your business taking advantage of Facebook marketing? Give one of our Social Media Specialists a call today to talk about the benefits of social media marketing and how it can benefit your business!